French lessons

My best friend in high school has a mom who is an English professor. They named their dog D'Artagnan. Not only did I have no idea of how to pronounce something that was French, I also had no idea who D'Artagnan was named for or what book it came from. Fran encouraged me to read The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, especially since Richard Chamberlain was in the movie version. So I read it, and I eventually even saw that version of the movie. I liked the story, but at the time, I had no idea of where the places mentioned were, or how to pronounce any of the names, and I didn't understand any of the Latin or French that made it's way into the book. So many of the men seemed so silly to risk so much for a woman.

Now that I'm an adult, I still think it's silly that men would risk so much for another man's wife, but I understand everything so much better now.

I've been reading scholarly books about the history of French love poetry, and how it relates to other works in literature, like Dante's Divine Comedy. Understanding more about the tradition of French romance literature helped me understand more of the motives of the men in the story. Understanding more the layout of Paris, France, and England helped me understand the geography of the story more. I know enough French to be able to pronounce the names, and I know enough Latin to translate when Aramis speaks in Latin. It had been long enough ago that I had forgotten the plot, for the most part, so though I knew somewhat who was going to survive until the end of the story, I was genuinely surprised by some of the plot twists.

The pace is quick, and dialog and characters really charming and funny. It's easy to see why Alexandre Dumas is such a renowned author all over the world.

I've been listening to my French lesson CD's again now that I have a long car ride into work. It's nice to be working on my French again, even though I don't have anyone to practice with me here in Tennessee. I'm hoping to someday be brave enough to try to read Dumas in French.

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